A few comments: This video, and others, illustrates a new era in the policing of protest. Now, basically any protest of significant size will likely be recorded by bystanders with smartphones. For example, when a protester was injured by Oakland police a few weeks ago, there was a video showing that the guy was just standing around. The immediate question is how the administration will deal. So far, badly. The long term question is how police departments will change in an age where everything is filmed.

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It may not be so much the qualitative recording as the quantitative distribution. What was once “broadcasting” (an analogy from ancient agriculture) is now “going viral” (another analogy).

As for this event, I wonder what former Berkeley police chief August Vollmer would have said. (“He was the first chief to require that police officers attain college degrees, and persuaded the University of California to teach criminal justice.” – Wikipedia here.)

“The long term question is how police departments will change in an age where everything is filmed..”

Put “illegal to film police” in your browser and follow the links. The First District federal appeals court ruled that it is well within the First Amendment. However, the State of Illinois is not in that district. Neither is California.

Fabio, I’m surprised you refer to the English professor as non-violent — isn’t teaching a useless major a form of economic violence against students? (Oh wait, you vowed to abstain from future “useless majors” comments.)